I'll Be There For Yule
by Princess Pinky
Summary: The Yule of 1976, as witnessed from Patty Halliwell's perspective.


A/N: No, you have not been drugged and you're not hallucinating, this is in fact a _real_ update from your long lost author. (And no, it's not a sign of the apocalypse…I don't think.) Anyway, I'm not dead, I've just been a little stumped and busy with other projects (i.e. _Charmed: Reset Reality_, if you want to Google it) and real life. *avoids tomatoes* But the season got me in a festive mood, as have Ryeloza's recent fics (she's awesome, you should check out her work if you haven't yet) and I decided to do a short ficlet. FYI, it's not a cheery happy fic, but it is set in the Yule season. (I'm not particularly sure if I'm completely satisfied with this fic, but hey, it's at least _something_, right?)

_**I'll Be There For Yule**_

Patty pressed her cheek against the cool porcelain of toilet bowl and exhaled. The stench of fresh bile sifted from between her lips and permeated her nostrils. A familiar whirlpool rumbled in her stomach and she jerked up, hugging the toilet again as a rush of stomach acid clawed its way up her throat and surged out her mouth.

She felt as though a fire was raging inside her. Her stomach churned constantly, her head pounded from worry, and her body ached from the tossing and turning of her restless slumber. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and managed to pull the silver handle on the toilet, flushing away the lemonade colored vomit.

"Patty?"

Patty jumped at the sound of Victor's voice from the other side of the bathroom door. She heard his soft knock.

"Are you in there? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered hoarsely.

"This is the fourth time I've found you in there this week. Are you sure-"

"I'm fine." She closed the toilet lid and pulled herself up using the edge of the counter. "It's just a bug," she added, opening the door a crack to find her husband's worried face staring back at her. "It's been going around," she said, avoiding his eyes. "When I saw Ruby last week, she had it. I guess I must've caught it from her."

"Oh." Victor wobbled on the soles of his feet. "Well…I'm just worried, that's all."

"I know." She smiled weakly. "Thank you." A silence lapsed between that made her wish she had the power of invisibility. The thought of freezing him crossed her mind for about half a second, until she realized he was leaning in to kiss her. She quickly turned her head, forcing him to miss her lips and instead catch her pallid cheek. She winced at his reaction, which reminded her of a puppy who'd just been hit on the nose with a newspaper. "Sorry," she breathed, once again smelling the bile on her breath. "I don't want you to get sick too." She bit her lip and added, "Besides, who wants to kiss someone with vomit breath anyway?"

Victor nodded. "Right." He leaned his hand against the wall. "I guess I'll go check on the girls then…your mother's making them breakfast I think…but hurry if you can, they keep asking about their presents."

"I'll be down shortly." Patty paused to look at him before shutting the door. She locked it and leaned against it, waiting to hear his footsteps as he shuffled away. She released the hot air from her lungs in a drawn out sigh and pushed herself against the edge of the sink so she could see her reflection.

Patty pinched a clump of her shoulder length chocolate curls between her fingers and tugged it down to her chin, causing the curl to vanish. She'd fought a Razor Demon at the beginning of the month and it had managed to chop off a clump of her hair, so she'd just decided to cut it all off to make it even. She'd been told for years that she and her middle daughter, Piper, shared the most resemblance of her three children, but now with her short curls, she thought she could see much of her youngest, Phoebe, in herself.

She pressed her hand to her stomach. Prue, her firstborn, had inherited her strength and brilliance, or so Victor told her. Piper and Phoebe had inherited her looks, and Piper had even received her power to freeze time. She released the clump of hair and the curl bounced back into placed by her high cheekbone. She wondered what she really had left to pass on.

A repetitive thud shattered Patty's thoughts. _"Mooommy!"_ Prue's high pitched voice screeched from the other side of the door.

"Presents!" Piper's voice cried.

Patty opened the door to find her bouncing six-year-old and three-year-old respectively. "Hey!" she smiled, scooping Piper into her arms as Prue hugged her leg.

"We wanna open presents!" Prue giggled, tugging at her mother's dark green velveteen sweatpants.

"Presents, presents!" Piper agreed, hugging Patty's neck.

Victor poked his head around the corner, balancing Phoebe, just over a year old, on his hip. "Sorry, I couldn't keep them away."

Patty reached down to ruffle Prue's haven hair. "Well since we're all up, why don't we go see what Santa Claus brought you?"

"Tanta!" Phoebe squealed as she flailed her arms around her father's head.

Patty leaned forward to set Piper down and as soon as the child's feet hit the floor, she grabbed her elder sister's hand and they practically flew down the hallway, nearly knocking Victor off his feet.

"Patricia!" Penny Halliwell's voice wafted up the stairs and into the hallway.

Patty cringed at the tone. "Coming, Mother!" She briefly touched her stomach again, running her fingers over the soft velveteen of her sweatshirt. Victor had intended it as a Christmas present, but Piper had been so eager for Christmas that she'd blurted out the secret gift and so he'd insisted she open it early.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked, scratching one of his sideburns with his index finger.

"Fine." She pushed her hands to her sides. "Just a little queasy, that's all." She shrugged. "Guess the Pepto hasn't kicked in yet." She strode passed him and began descending the stairs before he could continue the conversation.

As she neared the third step, she could smell her mother's holiday sugar cookies baking in the oven. Her stomach curled and she could feel a stream of sour liquid in the back of her throat. She turned her head as she stepped off the stairs and pinched her nose as she swallowed back the bile.

The blinking rainbow of light reflecting off the floor caught her attention before she even entered the living room. She paused in the entrance to admire the tree, embellished with gold, red, and silver glass bobbles; several ornaments handmade with popsicle sticks, glue, glitter, and cut up family photos; a home strung popcorn garland; and topped with a gold pentacle.

Underneath, presents in all shapes and sizes were billowing out. Prue and Piper her busily pulling them out, looking for ones with their names on them. Two piles were already being made, one for each of them. Meanwhile, Penny stood behind them, setting up the new video camera.

Patty flinched at the sudden feeling of Victor's hand on her shoulder. She turned to find him standing next to her, looking a little put off. "You startled me."

"Is it mine?" Piper asked, showing a present to Prue.

Prue shook her head as she grabbed the gold papered gift. "No, that's Mommy's." She held the present up in the air to show her mother.

"Come on, Patty." Penny ushered, impatiently waving her hand.

Patty hovered in the entry way a little longer as Victor set Phoebe down in front of the tree and took a seat beside Piper. She smiled as Prue pulled a fat, rectangular box covered in metallic green paper out from under the tree.

"Here Phoebe," Prue announced, "this one's for you." She set the gift in front of her baby sister, who began to tug at the silver bow.

"Patty!" Penny grumped.

"Mommy, come sit!" Piper begged.

Patty moved across the floor and laid down on her stomach beside Phoebe. She pushed her elbows into the carpet and propped her head into her hands.

"You need some help with that Penny?" Victor asked, glancing up at his mother-in-law.

Penny narrowed her eyes. "No," she snapped. "Men aren't the only ones who can do things you know."

"_Mother."_

Penny huffed under her breath. She adjusted the camera on the tripod and pressed the red record button before narrowing her eyes at Victor. "See?" she smirked. "It's recording!" She motioned to her granddaughters. "Open something, girls!"

Prue looked to Patty for approval. With her mother's nod of consent, she grabbed one of the gifts from the pile she'd started and began to peel away the layers of wrapping.

Piper snatched up a small pink wrapped box and began to tear away a gold ribbon as Prue worked her way down to a white and blue shoe box.

"What'd ya get? What's in there?" Victor eagerly asked.

Phoebe watched Prue intently as she pulled white tissue paper out of the shoe box.

"Oh!" Victor grinned, glancing at Piper as she yanked off a hunk of pink wrapping. "Is it open?"

Piper shrieked as she triumphantly revealed a case of play lipstick and blush.

"Makeup!" Patty cheered.

Piper beamed. "Yay!"

"It's like magic!" Victor said, throwing out his arms as he spoke.

Prue pulled a pair of soft pink ballet shoes out of her box and hopped up from the floor to the video camera where she waved the pink dance shoes in front of the lens. "Oh, Mommy!" she grinned, turning to wave the shoes at her parents.

Patty grinned and clapped her hands together for Prue.

Piper snatched up another present and began to open it.

"Come here, come here!" Victor urged, opening his arms for Prue.

Prue giggled as she ran over to her father and took a seat in his lap as she watched her younger sister open her second gift. "What is it?! What is it?!"

"Bobbi!" Phoebe cooed. She was tugging at the corners of her rectangular box, ripping bits of paper off the corners.

Piper held up a box containing a plastic cookware set.

Victor pushed a small box towards his wife, who took it and opened it up as Prue hugged Victor's neck. As she discarded the wrapping Victor playfully wadded it up and used it to tickle Prue with until she wailed with laughter.

"A Bobbi!" Phoebe yelled again.

Patty took the lid off the box to reveal a sprig of mistletoe, which Piper promptly snatched from the box and waved above her mother's head.

Victor grinned and swiftly leaned forward with Prue still in his arms, kissing Patty's lips. "Haha!"

Piper giggled and shook the mistletoe above her mother's head again, this time harder.

"Again?" Victor asked, laughing. He swooped down and grabbed Patty's chin, pulling their lips together.

"Mommy!" Prue squealed as the kiss broke.

"Aw, Prudence!" Victor laughed, hugging his daughter before allowing her to crawl out of his lap. He leaned over to Piper and grabbed the sides of her face and kissed her on the nose. "Piper!"

"Bobbi!" Phoebe yelped, tearing off a chunk of wrapping paper from her box.

"What is it?" Penny asked, looking over the camcorder at her youngest granddaughter.

Victor scooped Prue into his arms and lifted her into the air, causing her to scream excitedly. "Yay!" he yelled, lifting her up and down like a barbell. As she threw her head back, he blew a raspberry on her stomach and brought her back to his lap before looking over at Phoebe, who had finally completely unwrapped her gift. "What'd you get, Phoebe?!"

Phoebe held up her box containing a collector's edition Barbie doll in a flowing silver gown. "Bobbi!" she wailed.

"Yaaay!" Patty clapped in Phoebe's direction.

Victor laughed again as Phoebe shook the Barbie box.

From the corner of her eye, a blue glow caught Patty's attention. She lifted her head in the direction of the kitchen, but her husband and children were distracted with gifts and each other to notice. She looked back at her mother, whose face had also lost the holiday glow.

Penny made a quick swiping motion with her right hand in the direction of the kitchen. Immediately, the egg timer went off. "Patty," she said just barely loud enough to hear over the children's laughter, "why don't you go check on the cookies?"

Patty nodded. "Of course." She rose to her feet and padded off through the doorway that connected the living room and the kitchen and let it shut behind her as she entered. She paused mid-step as her eyes settled on her whitelighter, Sam, standing by the oven with a small wrapped gift in his hands.

"Merry Yule," he smiled, holding the gift out to her. When she neither smiled nor moved, his face fell. "What's wrong?"

Patty swallowed the fist sized lump in her throat and moved to him. She wrapped her hands around his and held them there for a moment, feeling the heat from his hands warming hers.

"You look sick," he observed. "Are you okay?"

Patty lifted the gift from his hands and set it aside. She lifted her eyes to meet his. "Sam, I've got something to tell you."

Sam brushed the back of his hand across her cheek. "What?"

Patty opened her mouth, but her tongue felt fat and heavy and refused to push beyond her teeth.

Sam brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and leaned his lips to whisper into it. "You know you can tell me anything."

She lurched forward on her tip toes in order to whisper into his hear. _"I'm pregnant."_

Sam jerked back, his eyes broad. "Victor?"

Patty took wrapped her fingers around his wrist and guided it to her abdomen and slid her hand down over his, entwining their fingers. "Happy Yule."


End file.
